Childhood neurosis and the causes of its occurrence. The article will describe the interpretation of this term, the symptoms of this diagnosis and further ways of its treatment. Neuroses in children is a mental reaction of the body, which some parents consider a temporary manifestation of the growing up of a child. However, experts in this matter fundamentally disagree with this common opinion, because the voiced problem has rather serious complications in the future. It is necessary to understand the process of the formation of childhood neurosis, as well as the methods of eliminating the voiced negative factor.
Description of the disease "neurosis"
Neurosis is a mental disorder that does not distort the vision of the surrounding reality and has the properties of reversibility. This deviation from the norm should not be confused with diseases accompanied by personality breakdown (schizophrenia, paranoia and various psychoses). The general characteristics of this pathology has a fairly wide range of its interpretation. First of all, we are talking about a collective name, which includes many disorders in the functioning of the nervous activity of both an adult and a child.
The difficulty of clearly identifying the sounded phenomenon lies in the fact that experts did not come to a consensus regarding the wording of the term. However, in medicine it is customary to consider disorders of the somatic nervous system, autonomic dysfunctions, phobias of a different nature, problems of the emotional-mnestic plan, convulsions against the background of nervous overexcitation, obsession and dysthymia under the diagnosis "neurosis".
Causes of neuroses in children
Even the most caring parents cannot always expect from which side trouble will come to their child. According to experts, the causes of neuroses in children should be sought in the following irritant factors:
- Hereditary predisposition … Genetic sequence implies the influence of family history on the formation of the fetus and its further development. If the child's parents had a voiced problem before his conception, then there is a certain probability of "copying" this information in the baby's nervous system. Experts have a rather contradictory attitude to the voiced question, but statistics show a very significant percentage of hereditary predisposition to neuroses.
- Family parenting model … The personality forms not only society, but also its immediate environment. Parents of a child can sort out their relationship with him so violently that over time this becomes the reason for the formation of a persistent neurosis in a child or adolescent. An additional danger of the formation of this pathology can be the abuse of alcoholic beverages by family members. In addition, it is worth remembering about such upbringing formats as overprotection, permissiveness, double standards in the demands of dad and mom, and authoritarianism on the part of the older generation.
- Postponed diseases of various types … The child's nervous system is only at the stage of its formation. Even in the womb, babies can be seriously affected by the lack of oxygen supplied to them. In addition, acute and chronic infections, brain injuries, oncological diseases and rickets in an advanced stage can cause neuroses of various types in them.
- Excessive physical and emotional stress … Experts never tire of repeating that everything has its own deadline. You should not sculpt from the time of infancy from your beloved child of a genius. Some especially zealous parents try to assign their child to all the circles that are in the near and far locations. At the same time, the child's body is subjected to a serious test, which can lead to one of the varieties of neurosis.
- Violation of the daily routine … Sleep is an integral part of the functioning of the human body. Consequently, if this need of the child is not fully met, then in the future it is fraught with the development of neurosis. Not in all cases the parents are to blame for the unstable sleep of their beloved child, because much depends on the temperament of their children. Hyperactive fidgets after a day filled with vivid sensations cannot calm down for a long time. As a result, they have difficulty falling asleep, which leads to a violation of the regime.
- A change of scenery … In this case, we can talk about both a change of place of residence, and about the child's getting into a new children's team. Not every small person can easily adapt to an unfamiliar environment, where everything is alarming and disturbing. In addition, there is no guarantee that a newcomer will be greeted friendly in the kindergarten or school. As a result, on this basis, the child may develop a neurosis, which was formed due to the constant being in a state of stress.
- The arrival of a new family member … Not every kid or teenager will accept the voiced fact with delight. A new dad or mom can come to the house, and in the marriage then, over time, a joint child is born. In addition, a new family member may already have children from a previous relationship. Therefore, after such changes, you have to share the love and attention of the parents. The result is a developed neurosis and demonstrative behavior in protest.
Important! The voiced problems must be corrected in advance by adults so that they do not develop into an obvious pathology. Better to be on the safe side once again than to reap the rewards of your ignorance in matters of upbringing with bitterness in the future.
Risk group for childhood neurosis
After long research, experts came to the conclusion that the following categories of children are most susceptible to the onset of the development of the sounded disease:
- Age 2-5 and 7 years old … Doctors are sure that it is this period of the child's development that is the beginning of the onset of neurosis. They base such conclusions on the fact that the small personality has not yet formed, and its consciousness has not absorbed any significant life experience. The sounded pathological process begins with neurotic reactions, which later, as they grow older, develop into a persistent neurotic state.
- Child with "I-position" … Some children do not lend themselves to adjustment in terms of upbringing by parents and teachers. These natural born leaders actively speak their minds about everything that happens around them. They perceive any restriction of their desires with violent protest, after which they are punished by their parents. After a decisive rebuff from adults, a child with a self-position may develop a neurosis.
- Somatically weakened children … From such little "martyrs" adults literally blow away specks of dust. By shielding their sickly child from almost everything around, the parents end up doing him a so-called "disservice". The child begins to feel completely unadapted to society, which further leads to the formation of a neurosis in him.
- Emotionally unstable children … In this case, they will react too violently to any everyday trouble or remark from someone. A child with an unstable nervous system tries to reach out to his parents if he does not receive enough attention and affection from them. By ignoring such gestures of despair, he becomes confident that he is not loved or appreciated. The result is the development of all kinds of phobias and fears of a different nature.
- Children in an SOS situation … Any stress is capable of triggering the mechanism for the development of a sounded pathology. Parental abuse, bullying in the garden or school, violence of any kind by strangers, the death of a loved one or a beloved animal - all this can cause a child to develop neurosis. In some cases, it is enough for him to be just a witness to some tragic event in order to receive serious emotional trauma.
- Pupils of special institutions … A child from an asocial family or an orphan ends up in a boarding school or orphanage. From the very beginning, this is a stressful situation for him, because he is automatically deprived of the love and care of his parents. The children's collective of such institutions is not always positioned as a friendly and close-knit team. As a result, the child develops the described pathology, which the teachers of such institutions do not immediately notice.
Varieties of childhood neuroses
As already mentioned, this concept means many mental disorders that have the property of reversibility.
After careful analysis, specialists have compiled a classification of the voiced problem, which looks like this:
- Anxiety neurosis … In this case, everything depends on the age of the child, who at certain stages of his development reacts to external stimuli in different ways. Children under 6 years old are usually afraid of the dark, loneliness and monsters, which the film industry is so generously supplied with. Adults, in order to correct the behavior of their children, very often themselves artificially create a neurotic state in them. At the same time, all sorts of horror stories about an evil stranger who will come and take the fidget are used. The parents' fantasy is gaining momentum over time, and the baby gets a neurosis of fear, which he cannot control. Children after 6 years of age sometimes experience extremely negative emotions for fear of getting a bad grade. In addition, older hooligans can bully primary school students within the walls of an educational institution.
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder … The basis of such a pathology is usually an alarming suspiciousness that has formed in a child for certain reasons. Against this background, all kinds of phobias develop, which most often are themselves and are invented by a small person. They can be expressed in a variety of ways. Sometimes children, themselves not realizing the reasons for such a fear, are afraid of death and all the attributes that accompany it. Some animals cause panic in a child with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Fear of heights, confined space, large crowds, infection - all this is just the beginning of a huge list of childhood phobias, which can be continued indefinitely.
- Depressive neurosis … It should be immediately noted that such a pathology does not occur in babies who are not yet able to carry out a deep analysis of their actions. This usually happens precisely at the time when yesterday's fools turn into guys and girls. Adolescent depressive psychosis is very dangerous in its consequences, so parents need to be on the lookout during the growing up stage of their children.
- Hysterical neurosis … Such manipulations are usually performed by little schemers who have not yet reached school age. Wanting to achieve their cherished goal at any cost, they stage whole performances in front of a grateful audience. Quite often you can see a toddler who rolls on the store floor and squeals heart-rendingly when he is not bought a toy or candy. However, the problem of neurosis begins only when such behavior becomes the norm and is repeated with enviable regularity.
- Asthenic neurosis … Some parents want to load their child to the maximum with all kinds of courses, circles and sections. Their opinion on this matter sounds like a slogan "let no time remain for stupidity and something bad."As a result, the child does not have time for childhood, after which asthenic neurosis begins to develop.
- Hypochondria … With this definition, one immediately recalls the movie "Formula of Love", when a young and idle master was given a similar diagnosis. However, adults should be alarmed by the fact that their child is not frolicking on the playground, but is carefully studying the "Medical Encyclopedia". At the same time, the little hypochondriac reads actively and tries on all kinds of diseases from the main book for him.
- Logoneurosis … Such a disease cannot remain invisible to adults, because with it the child stutters. The reasons for the sounded pathology can be very different. Boys who are under the age of five often do not have command of their speech apparatus. However, logoneurosis is usually based not on this factor, but on the stressful situation in which the child has found himself.
- Somnambulism … The voiced deviation from the norm usually looks like a conversation in a dream. The child has difficulty falling asleep and then becomes very restless. At the same time, he often wakes up, because he is often tormented by nightmares. The highest manifestation of somnambulism (sleepwalking) is the walking of children at night with a lack of understanding of this fact upon awakening.
- Anorexia nervosa … The whims of a child at the table are not uncommon when he simply does not want to eat the dish offered to him. In most cases, children are ready to absorb huge amounts of food that is harmful to them and flatly refuse to eat healthy. However, with anorexia nervosa, everything looks much more deplorable, because food rejection manifests itself in the form of tantrums and even gagging.
- Neurotic enuresis … Urinary incontinence can go away on its own as the child begins to grow up. It can arise from any diseases of the genitourinary system or due to the failure of the scheme "deep sleep - turning off the signal in the cerebral cortex when you urge to visit the restroom." A neurosis in this case is the fact that bedwetting occurs in a child after some kind of psychological trauma.
Note! The origins of childhood neurosis are usually to be found at a very early age. A fairly small percentage of these disorders appear already in adolescence. Therefore, parents, kindergarten and elementary school workers need to monitor the first manifestations of the sounded pathology in their children and wards.
Symptoms of childhood neurosis
Such a problem rarely goes unnoticed by the close circle of the child. Symptoms of neurosis in children usually look like this and should cause serious anxiety in their parents:
- Uncontrolled attacks of fear … With the sounded factor, the child may be afraid of one phenomenon and calmly relate to all other external stimuli. In rare cases, he does not voice his concerns to adults, because he needs their support and protection.
- Stuttering and entering a stupor … Parents should especially sound the alarm if such changes happened to their child suddenly and without clearly expressed reasons for this. In this case, you should not postpone a visit to a child psychologist and speech therapist, who in the shortest possible time are able to find the root of the evil of the pathology that has arisen.
- Unusual facial expressions and gestures … With obsessive-compulsive disorder, you can observe tics, eyeballs, twitching of the corners of the lips in an injured baby or adolescent. A child with a voiced problem may spontaneously jump up and down and pat himself with his hand.
- Lack of appetite … The most alarming factor is always the change in the eating habits of the former younger generation of the family. If the little gourmet stops asking to treat him with his favorite delicacy, then you should urgently look for the reasons for such changes.
- Increased irritability … Many children torment their parents with whims, complaints and demands. However, with neurosis, such indicators go off scale significantly, making a once-balanced child an outright hysterical.
- Lack of sociability … Children who prefer loneliness are extremely rare. Exceptionally one hundred percent phlegmatic people may not like noisy company and funny fun. Otherwise, the child's attempts to retire may indicate the development of a neurosis in him.
- Sleep disturbances … All children should sleep soundly at night unless they have obvious health problems. If the parents see that the child has problems with proper sleep, then we can assume that he has a neurosis.
- Fast fatiguability … If the kid is not a cunning manipulator and outright lazy, then it is worth considering the problem voiced. Its reasons may relate not only to neurosis, but also to more serious pathologies.
- Health problems … This can be expressed in the already sounded enuresis, "bear disease" (encopresis), tachycardia, an increase or decrease in blood pressure. To the listed deviations from the norm, excessive sweating, respiratory failure and memory loss can be added.
Features of the treatment of neurosis in children
Thinking about the future of your beloved offspring is necessary in advance, and not at the beginning of the point of no return. Parents of anxious children should think in time about the question of how to treat neurosis in a child.
Help of psychotherapists for childhood neurosis
If the problem has already obviously made itself felt, then you need to seek help from doctors. Experts in this field recommend the following ways to resolve the situation with the child:
- Family therapy … This technique is based on a step-by-step study of the voiced problem. First, it is necessary to examine the environment in which the child with neurosis lives. This is necessary in order to make a general diagnosis based on a set of personal, social and psychological parameters in relation to a particular family. Secondly, it is necessary to conduct a general conversation in which the immediate environment of the baby or adolescent will be involved. During this event, a plan of further action is usually discussed, which should include the general requirements for raising a child from the parents and the psychotherapist. Thirdly, you should start classes according to a specially developed methodology, which includes games of various formats. The last stage of family therapy is the joint work of the parents and the child. If the child is less than 6 years old, object games, the construction of interesting structures and drawing will be organized. For older children and their parents, the therapist will offer a discussion of topics on various topics.
- Individual psychotherapy … With this approach, six basic techniques are used to resolve the voiced problem, which have proven themselves to be excellent. With explanatory (rational) therapy, the specialist finds out the causes of psychosis in his little patient. Then he invites the child to ponder at his leisure the initial version of a situational story offered to him. In art therapy, children draw and sculpt without realizing the fact that they reveal their hidden problems better than words. Play therapy has an age limit that does not exceed the 10-year mark. When creating a "borderline state" for the child during the sounded method, the psychotherapist has an excellent chance to correct the patient's phobia. If a specialist deals with a problem teenager, then it is best to conduct autogenic training with him. The basis of this technique is the muscle relaxation of the child with the general voice influence of the psychotherapist on him. With hypochondria and adolescent problems, the method of suggestion (suggestive psychotherapy) has proven itself well. The whole essence of this technique lies in the proposal to drink the so-called placebo drug, which is an exclusively psychological technique to eliminate the problem. In especially difficult cases, hypnosis can be used, but experts are extremely restrained in this method of influence in relation to children.
- Group psychotherapy … The formation of such "cells" is necessary in cases of increased egocentrism in a child with psychosis. Usually, in this situation, children are divided into groups according to the principle of their age differentiation. To create a comfortable microclimate in such islands of mutual aid for children, joint excursions to interesting places are organized. In the process of such group activity, a child with psychosis begins to open up to his peers, sharing his problem and experiences.
- Communication with animals … Very often skeptics say that the same dolphin therapy has not found support in any serious medical organization. Recently fashionable hippotherapy (treatment of neurosis when a child comes into contact with horses) also raises doubts among many specialists. However, the fact remains: some children, after such non-traditional methods, feel much better and begin to adapt perfectly in relation to society.
The use of medications for neurosis in children
If you need to apply the sounded method of treating your child, you should urgently seek help from a specialist. After examining a small patient, the doctor may prescribe the following remedies to eliminate the problem that has arisen:
- Preparations for general strengthening of the body … In this case, it is worth trying to apply vitamins (groups C and B) and potassium preparations. Tincture of Chinese schisandra quite effectively stimulates the central nervous system of the child, therefore it is often used for childhood neurosis. In case of mental and physical strain, a specialist may advise the use of a tincture of enticement.
- Phytotherapy … Coniferous baths are an ideal way to relax a child with a pronounced nervous state. Motherwort and valerian will also come to the aid of a baby or teenager if he cannot calm down or fall asleep. With weak immunity and an unstable emotional state, the golden root helps perfectly, which will put in order the child's nervous system.
- Nootropic type drugs … In this case, we will focus on the appointment of drugs such as Piracetam and Nootropil. These drugs have a beneficial effect on the regulation of blood circulation in the brain and promote the utilization of glucose from it. The therapeutic effect of such drugs is that they improve the child's processes of perceiving information and accelerate its further processing.
- Antidepressants … It should be immediately noted that such a medication intervention in the child's body can nullify the psychotherapy already being carried out at the moment. They are prescribed with a pronounced hyperactivity of a small patient, but the sounded process should take place strictly under the supervision of a doctor. With increased excitability, a specialist can prescribe Sonopax, and with hypersthenic syndrome - Elenium and Eunoktin. Tranquilizers for hyposthenia are prescribed in the form of Seduxen and Trioxazine, which are also prohibited from being taken without a doctor's recommendation.
How to treat neurosis in children - watch the video:
Some parents do not ask themselves why it is necessary to treat neuroses in children. However, with such connivance on the part of adults, the child develops even more formidable pathologies. It is necessary to make every effort to save your baby or teenager from the voiced ailment, so that in the future he can realize himself in life.
